And The Heart Skips a Beat
by Copper's Mama
Summary: A Damon/Elena fic, from episode 7, "Haunted". a spin-off of the scene where she slaps him. Please read and review!


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_A Damon/Elena fic._

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_Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Vampire Diaries. _

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_A/N: So, I started watching this show this week, and I've fallen completely in love with this pairing. I was on the fence until I watched the end of episode 3 (I think it was 3) where Stefan is doing the voice-over saying that Damon is a monster who has no humanity, and can't love ... but it's obvious that he feels something like love for Elena, even if it is just because she looks like Katherine. I think he likes the fact that he can't control her, but I can't wait to see what the writers have in store for them now that she's not wearing the necklace. _

_Anywhoo ... this is taken from episode 7, right after Damon was called to deal with Vicki's body. I haven't watched the rest of the episode, paused it so I could write this fic. I'm gonna post it, and then watch the rest of it to see how different it is. _

_Well, I hope you guys like it, I know I'll loving writing it. _

_As always, please read and review, I live for feedback!_

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I slapped him. I don't know what I thought it was going to accomplish, but I slapped him across the face. Maybe a part of me wanted to convince both of us that he really did care about all the death around him. He got this look on his face ... almost a mixture of anger and contemplation. He looked at me for what seemed like hours, and then he smiled.

I couple help the slight gasp that escaped my mouth, or the unconscious step back that my feet took.

"You need to leave," he told me.

A part of me was relieved. He'd looked like he was about to attack me.

"Your wounds are bleeding, and you need to leave," he spoke once more, and it was all the encouragement that I needed.

Now I'm sitting in my bed, staring down at my diary, and even though a million thoughts are racing through my head, I can't put any of them onto the paper.

It had taken me until now to realize what he had meant. _"Your wounds are bleeding, and you need to leave_." His voice sifted through my body, and it finally occurred to me that he hadn't been threatening. He had proved my point right then and there. I had to leave because I was bleeding, and he wanted my blood. The thought gave me a moment's upset in my stomach, but then something akin to swooning happened, as I continued to the realization that he'd been protecting me from himself. Like Stefan with the necklace ... his had been a pre-emptive strike of sorts. He hadn't wanted me to succumb to Damon's powers of persuasion. But this was something else entirely. Damon was a wild-card, Stefan told me over and over that he couldn't be trusted ... but even though I had pissed him off and assaulted him, all-the-while seeping blood from my body, he hadn't taken me. He had controlled himself.

My mind reeled.

I snapped the diary shut, sagging on my bed. Thoughts were racing through my head, I was so confused, and I just wanted the world to go away for a minute so I could think.

"Thinking about me again?" a familiar voice purred from beside me.

I shot up in the bed, my eyes locking on Damon's casual form.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" I demanded, fully aware of the fact that I was wearing very little clothing ... a tank and short-short pajama bottoms. My wounds were patched up, but still fresh.

Damon shrugged, perching himself on the edge of my bed. "I was in the neighborhood."

I wanted to scream at him to get out, but my aunt and brother were home, and I didn't want to alert them to his presence. I just wanted him gone. My heart did a weird little flop when I said that, but I ignored it.

"Get out," I told him forcefully.

He tilted his head at me and grinned. "I don't want to."

I decided to change tactics. I knew that I couldn't forcibly remove him, and there was no way he'd let me call Stefan for help, but I knew that he would shut down if I started talking about his feelings.

"You know ... you pretend not to care, but it's obvious that you do. You could have fed off me tonight, but you didn't. That shows me just how much you care about the people around you," I told him, telling my thudding heart to shut the hell up already.

His eyes twitched, but the grin remained on his face. "Is that so?"

I nodded matter-of-factly.

He slid his jacket off his shoulders, and it occurred to me that this might not have been the best strategy.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, a slight hitch in my voice.

"Getting comfortable," he stated simply.

"Don't."

He leered cockily at me. "What? I'm just showing that deeply buried humanity you wanted to see so much." A split-second later, he was hovering over me, and I was somehow flat against the mattress.

"Get off me," I whispered forcefully, pushing at him, but it was useless. He was solid as a rock. Some twisted part of me perked up at that thought.

His eyes bore into mine. "I could do things to you that would burn you up from the inside. I could make you scream for hours on end." He got even closer. "And I'm not talking about pain."

I resolved to stand my ground. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of screaming or crying out. As long as I had the necklace on, he couldn't make me do anything I didn't want to do ... but couldn't he simply rip it off of me? My eyes betrayed my fear.

Damon looked pensively down at me, as though he could read my mind. I was almost one-hundred percent sure that he couldn't.

"Don't delude yourself ... I'm not some petty rapist. I may be a monster, but that's just not my style. And you're right. I could have fed off you tonight ... I could have bled you dry. But hey, the night's still young, and I was a little pre-occupied at the time."

His fingers brushed the wound on my side covered by bandages and my shirt ... but that seemed to intensify the feeling. A shiver ran through me, and a tear leaked out of my eye.

Damon's head swooped down at caught it with the tip of his lip ... it was almost a kiss, but not quite. "There's no need for that," he told me in a quiet voice.

"Just get it over with already," I whimpered, my voice betraying me. I knew there was nothing I could do to stop him. The momentary pause I'd had - thinking that he might somehow be good - had completely vanished.

He sighed, looking down at me. A moment later he rolled off me, laying beside me on the bed.

He crossed his arms behind his head, staring up at the ceiling.

I looked at him out of the corner of my eye, breathing in quick but silent bursts. I was sufficiently befuddled. "I'm not going to hurt you, Elena."

I turned my head slowly to look at him. "Because Stefan would kill you?"

Damon snorted. "Stefan's not strong enough to kill me. Hell, he already tried."

My eyebrows perked. "Then why?"

His head lolled to the side, meeting my eyes. "Disappointed?"

I blinked a few times, trying to clear my head. "No, I just ..."

"Thought you had me all figured out?" he tried next.

I rolled my eyes, and a second later he pounced on me again. It wasn't painful ... that much was true. His lips were warm against me - something I found truly odd for a vampire, even though Stefan had always been warm as well. I tried to focus on Stefan, and how this probably classified as cheating since I wasn't resisting Damon, but it didn't work - mostly because at the moment, Stefan and I weren't together. I panicked for a moment, thinking he had managed to get the necklace off of me with me noticing, but I could feel the cool metal against my chest, and was suddenly horrified with the fact that I was willingly kissing Damon Salvatore.

I tore my head away, panting and trying desperately to clear my head, not realizing that I'd given him an opening to my neck.

His lips on my skin caused my entire body to jolt, and as I was telling myself that this was the end of the line, his voice thrummed through my body. "I'm not going to drink you."

He burned a trail of kisses and nibbled up my neck while simultaneously rubbing circles on my wrists, bringing them above my head. Every time I felt his teeth on my neck, electric sparks ran through me, and I was half-convinced that he'd been lying, and would at any moment sink his fangs into me and take what he wanted.

His mouth angled downwards, and his kisses began getting lower and lower down my chest. My heart began speeding up again, and my body betrayed my once more.

Damon settled his chin on my ribcage, glancing up at me. "Tell me to stop and I will."

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. I shouldn't be enjoying this. I should be doing everything in my power to get away from him. I should be ... he was dangerous and unpredictable, and oh the things he could do with that mouth.

I closed my mouth once more, and he smiled that devilish smile of us, slinking back up my body slowly. My eyes locked onto his, and after what seemed like the longest minute in history, his mouth sealed over mine. It was different than before. For starters ... I kissed him back.

It was slow at first ... I could tell he was holding back. I was grateful for that. Whatever it was I was doing, I was glad that he appreciated that I needed to take it slow. Yet another surprising thing about him.

I could no longer deny the effect he had on me. Even with the necklace on.

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It was a week before we did anything more than steamy make-out sessions. Whatever we'd been doing, we'd kept it from Stefan. I knew that Damon would want to rub it in his face, but somehow I'd managed to convince him to keep it to himself. It was like we had our own little bubble, and no one else existed when we were together. I wanted to tell Bonnie, but I knew she'd freak out.

It had been a long day, and when I closed the door to my room to see him lying on my bed with his shirt already opened and his eyebrows waggling, I sighed and almost happily sank into his arms.

Tonight was different. I could feel it in his kisses. I met his eyes, and one look told me everything I needed to know.

After a moment I simply nodded, and he grinned before sitting me up in his lap and sliding my shirt up eagerly.

I smiled at the obvious show of emotion, filing it away for later. For now, I just let myself _feel_.

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_The end. _

_Hope you guys liked it! _

_Reviews are appreciated, positive or negative. _

_Until next time ...! _


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